Cierva Autogiro Company

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cierva Autogiro Company, Ltd
TypeLimited company
IndustryAviation
Founded24 March 1926 (1926-03-24)
FounderJames George Weir
Defunct1975 (1975)[citation needed]
Headquarters
Hamble, Southampton (from 1946)
Key people
Juan de la Cierva

The Cierva Autogiro Company was a British firm established in 1926 to develop the autogyro. The company was set up to further the designs of Juan de la Cierva, a Spanish engineer and pilot, with the financial backing of James George Weir, a Scottish industrialist and aviator.

History[]

Cierva's first British-built autogyro was the C.8 design. It and some other designs were built in conjunction with Avro. The pre-war Cierva C.30 proved popular. Nearly 150 were built under licence in the United Kingdom (by Avro), in Germany (by Focke-Wulf), and in France (by Lioré-et-Olivier).

In 1936, Cierva was killed in the Croydon KLM airliner accident when the aircraft in which he was a passenger crashed after taking off in fog. From 1936 to 1939 was Chief Technical Officer of the company. Dr. Bennett carried through with Cierva's intention to offer the Royal Navy a gyrodyne, which Cierva had argued would be simpler, more reliable and efficient than the proposed helicopter. Bennett's design, the C.41, was tendered to the Air Ministry (Specification S.22/38) but preliminary work was abandoned with the outbreak of World War II. Bennett joined Fairey Aviation in 1945, where he led the development of the Fairey FB-1 Gyrodyne.

In 1943 the Aircraft Department of G & J Weir Ltd. was reconstituted as the Cierva Autogiro Company to develop helicopter designs for the Air Ministry. The post-war Cierva Air Horse was at the time (1948) the world's largest helicopter. The first prototype of the Air Horse crashed killing Alan Marsh, Cierva's manager and chief test pilot[note 1] ,[note 2] Ministry of Supply Chief Helicopter Test Pilot, and J. K. Unsworth the Flight Engineer.[1] This led Weir to cease further investment in the company and its development contracts were transferred to Saunders-Roe.

Aircraft[]

British-built aircraft[]

  • Cierva C.8
  • Cierva C.9
  • Cierva C.12 (first flight 1929) - first autogyro with floats
  • Cierva C.13 - flying boat autogiro (project only)[2]
  • Cierva C.14
  • Cierva C.17
  • Cierva C.19
  • Cierva C.20 Focke-Wulf licence-built version of C.19
  • Cierva C.21 Lioré et Olivier licence-built version of C.19 (not built)
  • Cierva C.24
  • Cierva C.25
  • Cierva C.26 - twin-engine autogiro (project only); designation re-used for modified C.24[2]
  • Cierva C.29
  • Cierva C.30
  • Cierva C.32 - two-seat coupe autogiro (project only)[2]
  • Cierva C.33 - four seat autogiro based on the (project only)[3]
  • Cierva C.37 - twin engine, twin boom autogiro with 45-foot diameter rotor (project only)[4]
  • Cierva C.38
  • Cierva C.39 - two or three fleet spotter autogiro (project only)[2]
  • Cierva C.40
  • Cierva W.5 (first flight 1938) - 2-seater twin (outrigger) rotor helicopter with wooden frame; engine was a 50 hp 4-cylinder air-cooled Weir
  • (first flight 1939) - twin rotor helicopter, 200 hp de Havilland Gipsy, metal tube frame
  • Cierva W.9 (first flight 1945) - experimental helicopter to E.16/43, used blown air for torque control and direction, one built
  • Cierva W.11 Air Horse (first flight 1948) - heavy lift helicopter development of W.6 design, two built
  • Cierva CR Twin
  • Cierva W.14 Skeeter (first flight 1948) - from 1951 the Saunders-Roe Skeeter

Notes and references[]

Notes
  1. ^ Marsh had been with Cierva since 1932 and had been its instructor at the autogyro flying school. During World War II he had flown autogyros for radar development
  2. ^ Cable had learnt to fly under Marsh and had been a Cierva employee before world War II. During World War II, he had been commanding officer of the Research, Development and Training Unit for Rotary-Wing Aircraft.
Citations
  1. ^ "Air Horse Tragedy" Flight 22 June 1950 p747
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d "Cierva designations".
  3. ^ "Avro-Cierva C.33 / Type 665 - Stingray's List of Rotorcraft".
  4. ^ "Avro-Cierva C.37 / Type 668 - Stingray's List of Rotorcraft".
Bibliography
Retrieved from ""